A final report released by state Water Resources Control Board staff Friday maintains its recommendation that the Tule subbasin be put on probation but gives a pass to two specific groundwater agencies within the subbasin.
The report recommends that farmers in the Delano-Earlimart Irrigation District and Kern-Tulare Water District groundwater sustainability agencies be exempted from having to register their wells at a cost of $300 per well, file pumping reports and pay a $20-per-acre-foot pumping fee.
Those fees and requirements are recommended for farmers in the rest of the subbasin, which covers the southern half of the valley portion of Tulare County.
The Water Board will vote on the recommendation at a probationary hearing Sept. 17 in Sacramento. Probation is the first step toward a possible state takeover of a subbasin’s groundwater pumping.
The probation process is the enforcement side of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which mandates overpumped aquifers be brought into balance by 2040.
Eric R. Quinley, general manager of Delano-Earlimart, said he is pleased with the state’s acknowledgement that the district has taken numerous actions to maintain groundwater levels.
“We are committed to providing the necessary information and data that is required for the basin to be managed as a whole, whether through the probationary period or the implementation of an interim plan,” he said.
If the Water Board puts the Tule subbasin in probation, water managers will have a year to work with state staff to develop a groundwater plan that protects all users in the region.
If they can’t get a plan together in that time, the state would create its own “interim plan,” which would focus exclusively on curbing pumping.
Friday’s report brings the Tule subbasin another step closer to becoming the second San Joaquin Valley subbasin placed on probation. The Water Board placed the Tulare Lake subbasin (most of Kings County) on probation April 16. Fees, well registrations and other state measures in that subbasin have been delayed after a temporary restraining order was issued as part of a lawsuit against the state by the Kings County Farm Bureau.
The Tule subbasin has seen its share of turbulence over the past year. The Friant Water Authority sued the Eastern Tule Groundwater Sustainability Agency in February for not paying what Friant says a 2021 settlement promised to help fix the Friant-Kern Canal. A section of the canal had sunk due to excessive groundwater pumping in Eastern Tule’s boundaries.
Eastern Tule has been fingered by several agencies for questionable groundwater accounting. Kern-Tulare, Vandalia and Tea Pot Dome water districts voted to remove themselves from the GSA.
Water Board staff also called out the lack of groundwater accounting as a reason for its probationary recommendation.
Eastern Tule held a special meeting Aug. 29 to approve a new groundwater sustainability plan but observers said it would likely be too little too late.
“I don’t knock the effort, but your time frame did not work out for taking this big step given all the questions out there regarding if you’ve done everything you can or supposed to do as recommended by the state board,” said Don Davis, attorney for Friant Water Authority, at the meeting. He said the plan had been rushed and lacked public input.
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